Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/North Central University/Digital Reporting and Storytelling (Spring 2021)
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- Course name
- Digital Reporting and Storytelling
- Institution
- North Central University
- Instructor
- Jonathon Heide
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Journalism/Communications
- Course dates
- 2021-01-14 00:00:00 UTC – 2021-03-06 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 10
This course is an introduction to journalistic news gathering, fact checking and objective storytelling.
While many of the assignments in the later section of the course are geared toward journalistic endeavors focused on the students hyper-local community, the Wikipedia assignment (to create a new article) helps hone the students' skills in several areas, such as:
1) Researching and finding credible sources (this is also the area we talk about "fake news" and the reliability quotient of legacy news rooms vs. small tech startups and robot reporting—this also aligns with Wikipedia's policies on citations),
2) Verifying information (here we discuss the need to triangulate information, which flows right into finding more than one source for a Wikipedia page), and
3) Writing in objective tone (which is needed for both journalistic credibility [outside of advocacy journalism, of course] as well as Wikipedia article creation).
Finally, as an added component, the Wikipedia assignment for this course is designed to help the students understand that many important facts are not found within a Google search—and that there are often fact holes due to xenophobia and general nationalistic/ethnocentric bounds.
While these fact holes are often unintended, it is important for the students to see (and rectify!) in order to better understand that they can contribute to this digital realm of information through the process of researching, verification, and writing.
And finally, the students can go away from the article creation assignment with a better understanding of who creates the articles they often see referenced in blogs and Tweets, and they can even dig in and understand some of the "behind the scenes" pages to research the other editors of Wikipedia pages.
| Student | Assigned | Reviewing |
|---|---|---|
| Beatricedraghiceanu | Serkalem Biset Abrha | |
| Feliperochi | Christopher Kipyego |
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 18 January 2021
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.
Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia
Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 2
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 25 January 2021
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
- In class - Discussion
Week 3
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 1 February 2021
- Assignment - Exercise
- In class - Discussion
- Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 8 February 2021
- Assignment - Add to an article
Week 5
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 15 February 2021
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 6
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 22 February 2021
- Assignment - Peer review two articles
- In class - Discussion
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 1 March 2021
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
- Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.
Week 8
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13
Week 9
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.
Week 10
- Assignment - Polish your work
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!
Week 11
- Assignment - Final article
It's the final week to develop your article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!
Week 12
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.